Over the years since computers first entered popular society, computers have given users the ability to do tasks more quickly and efficiently. One very early application of computers was for editing and printing documents. Before computers, documents were typed on typewriters. Correcting such documents required using a dictionary to identify spelling errors, and documents would then have to be re-typed. Computers with word processing or editing software enabled documents to be changed and re-printed without the user having to re-type the document.
Early on, software companies realized the advantages of providing electronic dictionaries, to save users the effort of having to use manual dictionaries. But users had to manually invoke the spell checking component of the editor. Eventually, software companies added automatic spell checking to their editing programs. Automatic spell checking uses a static update list to let users know about misspelled words immediately, without having to run the spell checker.
FIG. 1 is a flowchart of automatic spell checking as it is used in the prior art, as exemplified by the AutoCorrect in Microsoft® Word and the QuickCorrect tool in Corel® WordPerfect®. (Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Corel and WordPerfect are registered trademarks of Corel Corporation or Corel Corporation Limited.) At step 105, a newly entered word is parsed. At step 110, the word is checked to see if it is misspelled. If the entered word is misspelled, at step 115 the static update list is checked to see if the word is listed. If the misspelled word is in the static update list, then at step 120, the misspelled word is replaced with the correctly spelled word.
FIG. 2 shows what happens to a document when the static update list is used. Document 205 is a document in which the user has typed a misspelled word that is in the static update list. In document 205, the misspelled word is “teh.” Note that the cursor is positioned directly after the word. The editing program cannot be certain that the word is completed until after the user has typed a space or some other symbol that ends the word. Once the user types a space, the editing program checks to see if the word is in the static update list. Since the word “teh” is in the static update list, the editing program automatically replaces the word “teh” with the correctly spelled word “the.”
FIG. 2 also shows what happens to a document when the misspelled word is not in the static update list. In document 215, the user has just typed the word “copmany,” which is misspelled. But because the word “copmany” is not in the static update list, the editing program cannot automatically correct the misspelling in document 220. In this case, the editing program informs the user that a misspelled word has been found, for example, by placing wavy line 225 underneath the misspelled word.
FIG. 3 shows a static update list as used for spell checking in the prior art. In FIG. 3, static update list 305 includes pairs of words. One entry in each pair is a misspelled word. The other entry is the correct spelling for the misspelled word in the first entry. For example, pair 310 includes misspelled word “teh” 315 and correctly spelled word “the” 320. Often, editing programs include pre-built static update lists, which include commonly misspelled words, as shown in FIG. 3.
Spell checking increases a user's productivity by allowing the user to know more quickly about mistakes in his/her document. But the user is still required to manually update the dictionary and static update lists. Where a user repeatedly makes the same typing mistakes that are not already in the static update list, the user must interrupt his/her typing to add new words to the static update list.
Accordingly, a need remains for a method and apparatus that helps a user update an automatic spell checker.